Hi fellow quilters, it’s that time again – time to catch up with you with another Quilters Quarters Newsletter.
I’m continuing the newsletter series of inexpensive gift ideas for your quilting friends. This week I’m going to tell you about a gift that uses up some of your button stash. A cute present for the fashion conscious quilter.


My gift this week is called Button Bling Buddy.

Firstly you need a really lovely length of ribbon that is rich and classy in look, maybe a velvet, Petersham or velveteen, or one that has an embossed pattern on it. Measure it around your wrist and add 1 inch. Then using a needle and matching thread, turn under and stitch the ends down, ½ “ each end. With needle and matching thread sew a small button that measures about ½” in diameter on the right side of one end of the piece of ribbon. Then using a very thin ribbon (about one eighth of an inch wide), sew a loop that fits this small button to the opposite right side of the ribbon. This is the mechanism that will hold the Button Bling Buddy together.

Now the fun starts. Go through your fabric stash and decide on “the look”. Do you want to use antique look buttons, maybe mother-of-pearl buttons, maybe big and bright, or whacky? Perhaps all the same colour, or all the same pattern, different colour. The choice is yours. One thing I would recommend is that you use the same genre for the one buddy. It looks so classy.

Work out how many buttons you’re going to use and start to sew them evenly onto the right side of the ribbon, using a matching thread and making sure the buttons touch.

And Voila!! You’ve made a great little gift, which has cost next to nothing and will be worn proudly by any needleworker.

Do you have some great inexpensive ideas for making Secret Santa gifts for quilters? Would you mind sharing them with a few others? Please go to the Forum site and add to the list of great ideas. Here’s the link:
http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=43

My most recent article on the BellaOnline Quilting website is Quilting Workshops – Expectations from a Teachers’ Perspective. Here’s the website: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art550.asp
I wrote a corresponding article a few weeks ago discussing the students’ perspective of expectations when attending a quilting workshop. If you have any feedback on this or any other article, please contact me via the email, or the forum website.


So till next time have fun quilting!
Cheerio for now

Judie Bellingham
Editor, Quilting, BellaOnline